Report claims activist violated probation by associating with gang members

Jasmine Abdullah, formerly known as Jasmine Richards, will return to court on Oct. 20 to enter a plea on charges that she interfered with a police officer during an incident at the Community Arms Apartments earlier this month.

After that, Judge Stan Blumenfeld will determine if Abdullah violated her probation stemming from a 2016 incident in La Pintoresca Park which resulted in an attempt to free a suspect from police custody.

According to a probation report, Abdullah violated her probation by associating with known gang members. However, her attorney, Jamie Gutierrez, argues there is no such provision in the terms of her probation.

“She was at a party with friends that she grew up with, and just because someone is black and poor that does not make them gang members,” said Gutierrez.

Abudullah was arrested at the apartment complex on Sept. 9 after a group gathered to celebrate a birthday.

After police arrived, Abdullah began taping them with her cell phone. A video of that incident posted on Facebook shows her following them through the complex and questioning their intentions. She also hurled profanities at officers before her arrest.

Pasadena police spokesperson Lt. Tracy Ibarra said Abdullah allegedly interfered with police as they attempted to communicate with members of a crowd gathered at the complex and was taken into custody.

Abdullah had an encounter with police in an East Pasadena park hours before her arrest while attending her cousin’s birthday party. At that event, a half-dozen officers arrived and began looking around. The officers refused to tell Abdullah why they were in the park. Abdullah, according to another cell phone video, later began insulting several officers.

Abdullah was arrested last year after she tried to free a woman from police custody. In that incident, officers arrested the woman for leaving a restaurant without paying and joined a rally at La Pintoresca Park. Police waited for the group to finish a rally happening there before arresting the woman.

After police made the arrest, Abdullah and several others circled the police car she was in and attempted to free her from custody.

Abdullah was charged with felony “lynching,” a term used by police to describe freeing someone in custody, but the charge was later changed after it was discovered that the law had been taken off the books a year earlier.

During the Jim Crow era, thousands of African Americans were lynched, or hanged. In some cases, the victims were removed from police custody by force so they could be hanged.

She was sentenced to 90 days in jail and anger management.She was released about two weeks later.

About 70,000 people signed a petition in support of Abdullah, who was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years probation.